Pierre Dorion has just spent a second busy summer in a row, increasing hirings and trades to allow the Ottawa Senators to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
But if we can afford a brutal truth, the general manager of the Senators was mainly busy correcting his mistakes from the previous summer.
Alex DeBrincat cost a 7th pick and 39th overall pick in 2023, and a third-round pick in 2024 when acquired in July 2022.
The 25-year-old didn’t have a bad offensive season, with 27 goals and 66 points, but it was still a drop in productivity from his 41 goals and 78 points the previous season and his Defensive deficiencies have hurt Ottawa.
DeBrincat was in the final year of his contract and showed no desire to stay with the Senators. Dorion managed to secure first- and fourth-round picks in 2024, but he will never recoup the lost value.
The Red Wings will indeed have the opportunity to give up their own choice or that of the Bruins obtained in the exchange of Tyler Bertuzzi at the trade deadline. The loss of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci in Boston is good news for Dorion. And nothing guarantees a playoff spot for Detroit.
With any luck, Ottawa may be able to get a first-round midfield pick, but it will still be a failing as a seventh overall pick is usually worth gold and the pick of start of second round is lost forever.
The Senators also received midfield winger Dominik Kubalik, 20 goals and 45 points, from the Wings last year.
To make up for DeBrincat’s loss in roster, Pierre Dorion has landed 31-year-old forward Vladimir Tarasenko for a year and $5 million. This is a reasonable contract. Let’s see if Tarasenko can revive his career after a season of 50 points, including 18 goals, in 69 games, following his year of 82 points, including 34 goals, in just 75 games a year earlier.
The contract offered to goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, 29, in the free agent market is significantly more generous. The former Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender will make $4 million per season for the next five years. But he has played 27 games on average over the past eight seasons, either due to injury or inconsistency.
The previous summer, Pierre Dorion bet on Cam Talbot at 35, obtained from the Minnesota Wild for Filip Gustavsson, then 24 years old. Talbot has had a tough year plagued by injuries. He just signed a one-year contract for a million in Los Angeles. Gustavsson had a stellar season with a 22-9-7 record, 2.10 GAA and .931 save percentage. He even stole the number one position from Marc-André Fleury.
Before Talbot, the Senators GM bet on Matt Murray, who got the Penguins for a second-round pick despite his injury proneness. Dorion offered third- and seventh-round picks to the Leafs last year to get rid of them.
The noose is tightening around Pierre Dorion. The first phase of its reconstruction was successful. The results are still not there. A seventh consecutive elimination from the playoffs could mark the end of his reign in Ottawa, especially with the arrival of a new owner.
Not only have the Senators not made the playoffs since 2017, they haven’t had a first-round pick in two years and didn’t pick until the fourth round this summer due to Dorion’s strategies for speed up the reconstruction. This is nonsense for a club excluded from the playoffs.
The loss of the 2023 first-round pick (12th overall) was due to the acquisition of defenseman Jakob Chychrun from the Arizona Coyotes. Chychrun is only 25 years old and he is a quality player. But he too is an athlete in fragile health. He’s only reached 60 games once in the past six years, and never more than 68 games in a career. Ottawa also gave up two second-round picks, in 2024 and 2026, to get the young man.
Chychrun was injured twelve games after joining the Senators and missed the last ten games for his new team. He told colleague Bruce Garrioch this week that he adopted a new summer training method in order to stay healthy.
The Senators missed the playoffs by six points last year. They were overtaken by the Sabers and the Penguins, also discarded. The challenge will remain daunting this winter in a competitive division like the Atlantic.
Things can change quickly for an athlete. Sixth-round pick of the Buffalo Sabers in 2016, Hagel was invited to the Canadiens’ rookie camp in 2018 after being dropped by Buffalo. He was cut rather quickly by Montreal after lackluster performances.
But a spectacular start to the season on his return to the junior ranks at Red Deer, 28 points in just 15 games at age 20, earned him a contract with the Chicago Blackhawks in October. He remained in the Junior League West all winter, before joining the Hawks farm club at the end of the season.
After a full season in the American League the following year, Hagel was promoted to the National League in 2020. He had 24 points in 52 games, then had 37 points, including 21 goals, in 55 games when the Lightning of Tampa Bay traded Boris Katchouk, Taylor Raddysh and first-round picks in 2023 (19th overall) and 2024 for fourth-round picks in 2022 and 2024 to get it.
The price seemed high, but at 23, Hagel had a 30-goal, 64-point season last winter. The Lightning rewarded him Tuesday morning: he got an eight-year contract for 52 million, or 6.5 million annually until 2032.
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